Call for Proposals - Building a New World Conference
The Call for Proposals for 2008
Building a
Towards New Local and Global Paradigms
May 22-25, 2008,
The Building a New World Conference will open on Thursday, May 22, with Registration and the Keynote Address. The General Conference begins on Friday morning, May 23 and concludes Sunday morning, May 25. It will feature Major Sessions and Paper, Poster and Workshop presentations. Evenings will offer documentaries, entertainment, veterans’ voices, and roundtable brainstorming for solutions.
Conference Location
The Building a New World Conference will be held at
Important Deadlines
About the Theme: Building a
Faced with the fact that over a billion people live in abject poverty, missing one or more of the five necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, health care and education; and that war crimes and crimes against humanity are daily perpetrated by governments and mega-corporations committing economic genocide and terrorism, it then behooves the morally committed seekers of justice to educate each other on the issues in order to determine courses of action to alleviate to the best of our ability the suffering of other sentient beings.
We need to move past the military and economic crimes of Empire and seek new local and global paradigms. Thus motivated, the First Summit of the World Prout Assembly is sponsoring the “Building a New World Conference,” with sessions focusing on both problems and solutions, including, but not limited to: Ending Empire, After Capitalism, Immigration Rights, Health Care Rights, Reform and New Directions, Fundamentalisms and terrorisms, Undoing Racism, Economic Exploitation, Cooperatives on the Ground, Localization and the fight for economic democracy, The Fight for Economic Democracy, Bioregionalism, Secession, Neohumanism, Predatory Lending, Short and long-term effects of global warming, A New Monetary Policy, Animal Rights, Vegetarianism, Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution, Solidarity Economy, Civilian Democratic Earth Federation, The Water Crisis, Women's local and global, economic, intellectual and spiritual liberation, Surviving Economic Depression, Community Currencies, and Iraq Veterans Speak Out.
The overall theme of "Building a
We invite all of those interested to submit proposals for panels, papers, workshops, and performances that represent the wide range of anti-hegemonic scholarship in the
Guidelines for Submitting All Proposals
All proposals must be submitted electronically to wpaeditor@gmail.com or gghista@gmail.com, or may be mailed to World Prout Assembly,
No submissions will be returned. E-mail submissions will be deleted after the "Accept or Decline" notifications are sent. Hard copy submissions will be re-cycled. Please keep your own copies!
We especially encourage complete panel/session submissions. Full panels must include at least three presenters with complete contact information and affiliation for ALL panel participants as well as a non-presenting moderator, who will be charged with introducing speakers, keeping time, and coordinating discussion. Moderators will be listed in the conference program and must register for the conference. WPA will assist with assigning moderators for individual proposals.
Proposals for poster sessions* (please see below) are also invited. Selecting this option increases the likelihood of acceptance.
All speakers, panelists and presenters should provide a one-page synopsis of their material for presentation along with their proposal, which later can be distributed to participants and posted on the WPA Conference website.
Panel vs. Paper and Other Session Formats
WPA has a variety of formats for examining and presenting the conference themes: panel sessions, paper sessions, poster sessions, performances, workshops and roundtables.
Panels provide 3-5 participants an opportunity for examining specific problems or topics from a variety of perspectives. Panels may present alternative solutions, interpretations, or contrasting points of view on a specified subject or theme. Panel members are expected to prepare papers addressing central questions described in the proposal. We especially encourage prospective participants to network and find colleagues with whom to develop complete panel sessions.
Paper proposals are typically submitted individually and arranged into sessions by the Proposal Review Committee. In paper sessions, authors present 10-12 minute papers followed by audience discussion. A typical structure with four papers allows approximately 5 minutes for the moderator to introduce the session, 10 minutes for each presenter, and 30 minutes for discussion.
Creative Writing Series Because we believe that progressive and radical paradigms for a New World must embrace and complement artistic vision, a significant feature of WPA's “Building a New World Conference” will be the inclusion of venues for presenting creative works of poetry, dance, drama, photography and painting. We look forward to making space for writing which expresses ideals related to pressing political, cultural and social issues in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, dramatic monologue, and experimental creative writing. In addition to featured artists, all those wishing to share their work with a wider progressive/radical audience, in venues consisting of 25-1500 seats, are encouraged to participate, join the open poetry sessions, etc.
Film Series - The two-day Film Series runs concurrently with the panels and papers and is a supportive and lively venue for screening films and videos. We are interested in receiving work that responds to the conference themes of (1) Resisting hegemonies and Empire; (2) The politics of race in and across nations and regions; (3) After capitalism: modeling new economic, political, agricultural and cultural paradigms.
Films will be accepted until March 15, 2008, and selections will be made by April 1, 2008. The films selected are then loaned to the WPA for projection during the conference and are returned to their sponsors by mid-July 2008. Films are projected as CD/VHS/DVD. The Conference Program Book will carry: (1) a 75-100 word description of the film; (2) Name of the film producers/sponsors; and (3) Ordering information, including names, addresses, and websites of distributors. Videos should be submitted with a cover sheet to: World Prout Assembly,
Roundtables typically include a moderator and 4-6 presenters who make brief, informal remarks about a specific idea or project. The format allows for extensive discussion and audience participation.
*Poster sessions are informal in nature, with excellent networking potential. We will provide ample space for poster sessions and encourage prospective participants to consider this option. Poster sessions present research or analysis on a topic by combining graphics and text on a 4' x 8' board. The poster session presenter is available during an assigned session time in order to interact on a one-to-one basis with the attendees viewing the poster. A well-planned poster communicates its message in a visually and textually powerful way, allowing the attendee to grasp the overview of information quickly.
Workshops provide an opportunity to exchange information or work on a common problem, project or shared interest. Workshops are typically experientially oriented and include brief presentations that allow adequate time for reflective discussion and interaction.
Note: All panel proposals must include complete contact information for participants, plus a non-presenting moderator. Incomplete panels with less than three participants will not be considered for review. Workshops and roundtable proposals that feature multiple participants must include all participants' names and contact information at the time of proposal submission. One-person workshops will also be considered.
Abstracts for all proposals should be 50-100 words. Abstracts explain to potential attendees the topic, foci and/or goals of the presentation or reading in a clear and succinct manner in the conference program book. Abstracts may be revised or edited for the printed program.
One to two-page proposal descriptions (250-500 words) will serve as the basis for evaluation by the Proposal Review Committee and thus should include some or all of the following as appropriate: (1) Objective or purpose of the paper, panel, workshop, etc. (2) Perspective and/or theoretical framework and/or references to relevant, specific texts, authors, or research, or on-going debates in related fields; (3) Results and/or conclusions and points of view; (4) Relevance to the conference theme; (5) Discussion of how the session will be structured. Proposal descriptions will assist proposal reviewers’ evaluation of the appropriateness of the session or paper. Abstracts and proposal descriptions may not exceed the word limits given above.
We look forward to receiving your proposals, to your participation, and to dialoguing with you next May in
Garda Ghista
